Devlog #1

"Sometimes it helps to scold yourself, to give yourself advice." - R.L. Stine

As promised this chunk of updates does have a mostly functioning game loop. There is a new start room with an intro blurb, and checks added so that as you progress through dialogs new areas are opened or accessible. Among these, the shadow caster in the caves room to the right becomes lighter once you have the Lampsi tool, and there is a destroyable rock in the same room you can remove once you have the Repulsor. I will add that I was moving slowly today and so the placeholder dialog is quite bad. But in the end I delivered on the expectation. 

I did build out the basics of a pit and spike trap mechanic, but I feel I should update the ending screen before continuing. I'd like the ending message to be dynamic based on your death, and encourage the user to try again because there is no life system, and instant death can be quite irritating. I am considering if there should be just a few small checkpoints so you don't have to redo the intro.

The goal for the next update will be improvement of the core dialog and introduction of the inventory system. The save system I created integrates with the dialog plugin Chatterbox poorly, and many of the hard coded checks I'm making should be replaced. Ideally, as items are picked up you can equip them with the number keys, and the currently equipped item should situationally have effects on dialog and the environment, which is not currently the case. I think introduction of the inventory and reworks to the flag system will not only be cleaner, but enable some faster iteration on the dialog. There are times to hard-code and avoid abstractions but this shouldn't be one.

Lastly, I was day dreaming about how the characters should react to the magical tools and I think some exaggeration would take it home. In this short setting, a subtle mind control working towards clever subterfuge is just too hard to build. A shock-and-awe sort of mind blender may be more impactful. Weak minded characters should bend over backwards for Lampsi, and quickly spiral into mania. Strong willed characters should be visibly shaken by Deimos, but with persistence erode into paranoid messes. I want to make the few decisions the player makes pay off in immediate ways.

Looking forward to writing more dialog tomorrow 🤠